Submit News

The Catholic Miscellany is the official newspaper of the Diocese of Charleston. This bi-weekly publication strives to present news and events covering a range of activities by Catholics in South Carolina in a professional manner.

All meetings and events cannot be covered by Miscellany staff, so designated parish contacts and other individuals are encouraged to submit news. The Catholic Miscellany does not try to explain each event in detail — it can only give highlights and provide some resources for more information. We follow Associated Press and Catholic News Service Style.

The newspaper is published biweekly on Thursdays so information should be sent in at least three weeks in advance of desired publication date.

If you are interested in taking out a paid advertisement, please visit our advertising page.

People & Events notices

What to submit:

Upcoming events and calendar items. Events should be open to the community at large, such as a yard sale, guest speakers, workshops, and not specific to one parish.

P&E notices are run at the editor’s discretion and if/when space allows. Publication or frequency is not guaranteed. Items such as regular monthly meetings or liturgies, requests for donations, bingo or raffles will not be included.

If your item does not qualify as a People & Events topic, you would like to include graphics, or you would like guaranteed publication of your notice, please visit our advertising page for details on scheduling a paid advertisement.

What to include:

Please include the city, date, time, place, cost, and contact person and phone number with area code.

EXAMPLE: CITY–St. Cecelia Church, 123 Boulevard St., will hold a yard sale on Nov. 1 at 10:30 a.m. Contact: First and last name, email, area code and phone number, ###-###-####.

When to send:

Send in any items at least three weeks in advance of a publication date — the sooner the better.

Who to contact:

Parish Life briefs and School Notes

What to submit:

School Notes is now a part of our Parish Life section. Here’s what schools and parents should submit: Awards – school local community and state etc.; Scouting awards (Eagle, Catholic awards); championships (from sports to chess); fundraising tallies (not if you’re having a fundraiser, but how much you raised and where it’s going); senior scholarships; military academy appointments; new building projects. No classroom projects unless it has a broad or unusual news appeal, or impact on the greater community.

Photos:Avoid posed group shots whenever possible. Headshots are fine for awards. It’s ok to send just a photo and not a press release if it’s an appealing or entertaining shot and the subject’s face is clearly visible. Be sure to include the first and last names of all children pictured, the date and the event description. Schools or parents are required to obtain necessary permissions allowing children’s photos to be published. See photoDos&Don’ts section for advice on how to take pictures.

Photographs

Photographs should be unedited (no alterations whatsoever) and include people in action situations — candid if possible. At least ¾ of a person’s face should be shown.

Groups should be close up and limited to three to five people; rarely if ever, more than five.Including a full group of people in any event detracts from the picture by making the subjects too small to be recognized. Choose a representative sampling of individuals in actions concerning the events.

Photos must be timely, bright, focused and unaltered in any way. Images with people added in after the fact are considered unethical. Be sure to fully and correctly identify each person shown. Digital photos are preferred and should be of medium or high resolution and of regular dimensions, a 1 x 2 inch photo is unusable.

Press Releases

What to submit:

Keep it simple and stick to the facts. Please avoid embellishments or flowery writing. Tell the story as concisely as possible.

Remember the following style:

The opening paragraph must summarize the press release. The paragraphs that follow should provide the detail.

The body of the press release should be written with the most important information and quotes first. This inverted pyramid technique is used so that if editors need to cut the story to fit space constraints, they can cut from the end without losing critical information.

The closing paragraph repeats the critical contact information, including the name of the person, his or her phone number and/or email address.

Press Release sample format:

City, Date, 2016 — The first few paragraphs contain the most important information:
who, what, when, where, why and how.

A press release has short sentences and about three or four lines per paragraph. The rest of the news release expounds on the information provided in the first paragraph. It includes accurate quotes from key people. It contains more details about the news you have to tell, which can be about something unique or about a prominent person, place or thing.

Finally, provide contact information include the full name of the person, a phone number and an e-mail address.

Who to contact:

Send your press release to Deirdre Mays at editor@charlestondiocese.org. Please make sure you include the church, topic or event name in the subject line.

Full-length articles

If you are interested in freelance writing, please send resume, letter of interest, and a minimum of three samples of published work to Deirdre Mays at editor@charlestondiocese.org.

Story Ideas

What to submit:

Do you know of someone in your parish who truly lives out the life of an apostle, a group that is making a particular effort to help the community, a priest or religious who gives without expectation, someone or something that touches other people’s lives and makes a difference? Please let us know.

Is it news? Ask yourself if this is of interest to someone on the other side of the state, unusual, significant, different, and not happening to anyone else. Also, make sure that it is timely, articles referring to events over a month old are not news.

Please let us know if your parish has an event coming up that is open to or of interest to the community. Do not assume that because the bishop, diocesan staff, pastors or church staff know about an upcoming event, that The Miscellany staff will too.

Please note that routine or everyday activities and meetings of a church, parish, school or other organizations cannot be covered or published. Anniversaries are only covered at 10, 25, 50, 75, 100 years, etc. Due to space constraints and a commitment to covering all aspects of the diocese equally, The Catholic Miscellany will not be able to assign coverage of these items. Please consider submitting a press release to the Parish Life column instead.

When to send:

Send in any items at least three weeks in advance of a publication date or date of an event. The sooner the better.

Who to contact:

Email story ideas to Deirdre Mays at editor@charlestondiocese.org. Please make sure you include the church, topic or event name in the subject line.

Letters to the Editor or Op-Eds

About publication:

Letters to the editor about articles published in The Catholic Miscellany are welcome. They are published at the editor’s discretion. Uncharitable and erroneous letters will not be considered.

Op-Eds are run at the discretion of the editor and require prior notice for consideration.

Letters represent the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Miscellany, the Diocese of Charleston or the bishop.

What to include:

Letters should cover one subject, be charitable if in disagreement, and are subject to editing in order to conform to space, accuracy and style requirements. Letters that Please limit to 250 words and provide name and contact information (phone and email).